Keep Swimming!

Transfers were this week.  I will be staying with Sister Watson in La Mirada and I'm ok with all of that!

So I realized I have never talked about IFC before. IFC stands for Inter-Faith Food Center.  Here we are able to do all kinds of service as missionaries.  We get to feed the homeless and low income families.  So this week we bagged BOXES and BOXES of moldy green beans.  It was super disgusting.  I love it when we get to work the homeless counter though. Homeless people here are really nice. I've actually had an investigator who is homeless and wanted to be baptized... but he couldn't because he doesn't have an address. 

We had zone service activity on Saturday to help the IFC.  We don't usually do service on Saturdays- we aren't allowed unless it's a zone or mission activity.  We collected food donations.  It was actually pretty fun. We were with some other sisters and I LOVE them so much.

The weather has been beautiful this week! I took a ton of pictures and then I forgot my camera... so you will get them next week.

This week was difficult for me for many reasons.  We worked so hard and diligently with little success.  Many people were rude to us or ignored us completely.  Many of our appointments fell through.  I had to come back to what I've learned before . . . we must KEEP SWIMMING!  Even when things seem extra hard and discouraging! When you get down you should probably plaster some version of a smile on your face, and put one fin in front of the other till the water is propelling you and the smile is real :)  

Please include our mission in your prayers and pray for God to soften hearts here in La Mirada so people will let us share the beautiful message of the gospel!

Love you all- Jess

Mom & Dad unexpectedly bumping into Jes on Tuesday as they welcomed new missionaries to the Long Beach Mission

My parents have taught 22 lessons to this sweet lady.  She was baptized on Sunday and Jessica was able to attend since they are in the same zone.  It was a wonderful evening for them!

Serving God With Our Mind

This week I have been trying to control my thoughts.  THAT IS SO HARD! We are asked to serve God with all our might, mind, and strength... turns out the mind part is the hardest for me. 

We got to see quite a few people, we met some new people, and we are continuing to teach older people.  I guess I'll tell you about two families. The first is the M's . . . they are an older couple that we see every week.  They are inactive due to health problems so we decided we are going to teach them all the lessons because we rarely get to do that.  It has been so fun to teach some of the lessons we never get to teach.  The other family is the

K's. We started teaching the wife at the beginning of the transfer. Her sister's husband died of a crazy accident a few weeks ago and we have been able to teach powerful lessons to her and her sister because they are so willing to listen and learn.  

I've learned though, as a missionary, that you can't control everything- the only thing you can control is losing yourself in the work and truly becoming a missionary.  Too many people think that serving a mission is about baptizing and saving souls but because of agency- the only soul we have 100% responsibility of saving is our own.  As we recognize and develop out potential we become more like Christ, and our light is unconsciously spread. This light isn't only emanated in our example but also in our countenance.  We literally shine.  Next time you walk through a crowded place take a look around and see how many people look at you.  We are different as members but more different as missionaries.  Everyone knows it and they all can see it. 

We are still finding and teaching. We almost set a baptismal date with two more investigators but one of them said she wants to go to church a few more times and the other one said that she is going to talk to her mom. My companion, Sister Watson is pretty cool- I like her.  She is pretty funny and a good teacher. 

I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Jess

Jessica's Zone

Lunch with the Grandma and Grandpa and the sisters in our apartment complex

M &L (Jessica's first contacts off the plane in Long Beach and her only baptisms so far) were in Utah again visiting family.  We went to dinner together and L told us about her amazing experience of being baptized for her daughter who passed away two years ago.  She told me she has never felt what she felt that day in the temple and can't wait to go back!  Incredible to watch the process of conversion with these two amazing people!!

My Birthday Week!

This week was a ton of fun.  My companion set a baptismal date with an investigator... but they didn't come to church so I don't know if the date will actually stick.  We taught many less active people.  Our goal this week has been to be CRAZY bold so we have been contacting and door knocking with topics like repentance and baptism.  It's actually been pretty fun.  By contacting with more bold things and clearly saying in kinder terms, "We are here to teach you that God's only true gospel has been restored and you need to repent and follow it..." we are able to quickly pull the wheat from the tares and find those who are truly seeking the gospel.  It's kind of scary but well worth it. 

My birthday was so fun! We got up and Grandma and Grandpa brought packages. They brought them during the last few minutes of companion study (which is bad because it may be disobedient not to be studying) but we still got out of the house by 10:00 and were able to work all day.  It was a pretty good day- we went to a less active lady and had really good hot chocolate. Then we worked and worked and had DINNER WITH M &L AND SISTER P from Cypress (best. part. of. the. day)!  This is the couple that I taught and got baptized and Sister P is a wonderful member who loves the missionaries and is friends with them.  I opened a birthday present from my mom and Mandy (thank you so much by the way)!  We got to see Sister L, my last companion, because she was on exchanges with the STL's  next door. It was a ton of fun.

We had a really neat lesson with a lady that is less active.  She is about 25 and it was a really powerful lesson and really fun.  We also found a family that are new investigators.  They were so kind and we will see if they progress in the gospel. We also tried so hard to get this less active brother to church.  He use to never come because of work but he told us that his schedule changed... long story short he still didn't show.  Any tips on how to get them to church would be great. We also saw a bunch of drug needles on the ground in one of our sketchier area's while proselyting.  Yep... welcome to California!  

Love you all- have a good week!

Sister Webb

GF Pizza with M &L and Sister P!!

L bought me a GF Chocoate Chip Cookie Dough Bundt cake that was AMAZING!!

Grandma and Grandpa delivering gifts to me!!

Christ-like Love

This week I am really am trying to love everyone and the Lord more than myself. I want to care so much about them that I don't think about myself much. I think that if I can accomplish true Christ-like love, then many of the other Christ-like attributes I have been trying to develop will be easier to obtain (if not already obtained). I had an interesting experience yesterday while working on this. We were coming home from the last session of conference.  I was really thinking about love (as I have been doing lately) and I had the impression to look to the right. There was a man rubbing his eyes and he looked really tired and sad. I don't know what happened but I felt more love for him than I have ever felt for a stranger. I wanted to get out of the car and give him a hug and tell him that God is real and can help him. I have never felt that way before. I literally started crying in the car for a man that I don't even know the name of. I promise I'm not even PMSing right now :) I've been praying for this spiritual gift and I feel like for a second there, I had it. It's the first step!

We visited with so many people this week. We are still finding new investigators. I wish more of them were the kind that we can keep, but sadly most of them drop us.  However, there is a couple that we got to teach yesterday.  The boyfriend is less active and the girlfriend is not a member. We talked about the plan of salvation and about how they can be together for eternity. I am really excited to continue teaching them. 

The neatest experience this week happened  on a slow day when things didn't seem to be going according to plan. All of our appointments fell through and we were walking around trying to find people to talk to and help.  The Sister Missionaries before us found a mother and a daughter in our area and we had stopped by a few times to teach them but they were usually gone.  We were walking near their house, not planning to stop and see them, when the phone rang.  I answered and it was Taylor- she is the nine year old daughter.  She told me that her mother- the lady we were teaching- had just been killed in a motorcycle accident. We were legitimately standing directly in front of their house. I asked her if we could share a message and give her a hug.  She came through the gate and I just embraced this darling 9 year-old girl and cried for her. Her grandmother- now her caretaker- has been very anti-Mormon, but she told us we could come back and teach her granddaughter.  What a miracle!  I'm so grateful that God trusts me enough to put me in these devastating but humbling places.

Everything is going well! We are still working hard and we are learning more and more every day.
I love you all!
 Love, Sister Webb